Blog

Rough Draft of Grant Application

Musana Grant Example

Name of Organization: Musana
Mission Statement: Our mission is to empower Ugandan women through a vibrant social enterprise that provides stable employment and educational opportunities, thereby building the capacity of artisans to end their cycle of poverty and become advocates of change in their communities
Tax ID number: XXX
Address: University Ave., Provo, UT 84604
Phone Number: (xxx)xxx-xxxx
Website Address: http://musanaintl.com

Executive Summary

Musana is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission to empower Ugandan women through a vibrant social enterprise that provides stable employment and educational opportunities, thereby building the capacity of artisans to end their cycle of poverty and become advocates of change in their communities. We currently employ 21 women who make jewelry that we sell in the United States. Now we are seeking $4000 to start a business loan pool. The business loan pool will act as a banking system for women in our organization who are interested in starting their own business.

Background (organization and need)

Approximately 20% of Lugazi’s population is considered to be rural poor. This means that roughly 28,800 people in Lugazi, Uganda live on less than $1 each day to provide for all of life’s necessities. Over the years, many nonprofit organizations have been started in Lugazi to help the rural poor, but we noticed a gap in sustainability. We wanted to come in and provide individuals with the means to provide for themselves in the future and stay out of the cycle of poverty.

Musana was founded in 2009 and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit business organization. Musana works with women in Lugazi, Uganda to design, produce, and sell beautiful artisanal products in Uganda and the United States.

Musana currently employs 21 full-time artisans. The full time artisans’ 67 school-aged children are now all in school out of 108 total children. Additionally, our artisans are able to support the basic needs of their families with education, healthcare, food, and housing. Over half of our artisans can now read and they all have savings accounts. They are much healthier, more confident, and report a higher level of happiness than before their employment.

Project Description

Since 2009, Musana has envisioned aiding women in Uganda to lift themselves out of poverty. We have taught 21 women how to make jewelry and run a business, save, take care of themselves and their family, and afford the necessities of life. Now it is time to continue the cycle by helping these women start their own businesses independent of Musana, which will allow us to bring more women into our program.

For this purpose, we have designed a new project, the Artisan Loan Pool. The Artisan Loan Pool will begin with $4000 in a lockbox and 10 of our 21 women who are already designing their own businesses. The loan pool will serve as a miniature, private bank for these 10 women. Once a woman has gone through the process of designing their business, they will come before the other women in the group as well as the leadership of Musana. Together we will discuss their idea and decide whether or not they are ready to pursue their business and are ready to take a loan from the loan pool. Upon approval, the woman will take out a loan of $50-$500 to start their own business. They will then use this money for their startup costs. As they get their business going, they will begin to pay back the loan pool with a small amount of interest. Then, within one year, they will completely pay off their loan, which will enable more women to begin their own businesses.

Our goal is for each woman in our program to start their own business to provide for their families, which will open up spaces in our Jewelry program for new women.

Project Timeline

Month 1: Meet with the first 10 women and introduce the business loan pool. Brainstorm ideas for each woman’s business.

Month 2: Bring in business professionals to discuss business ideas with each woman and design detailed business plans for each woman.

Month 3: Have the Business Loan Pool fund on site in Uganda

Month 4: Meet with the women and discuss which woman (women) will pursue their ideas first (3 max).

Month 5: Work with the first 1-3 women on their business plans. Create budgets for each woman and decide how much money they will receive from the loan pool.

Month 6: Each woman takes their loan out. Each woman begins their business venture

Month 7: Each woman reports to the other women and the organizations leadership about the progress.

Month 18: report and pay final increment of business loan back to the Business Loan Pool Month 19: Begin process from Month 4 with second round of women

Budget

Seeking: $4000

The $4000 will go into the Business Loan Pool, which will essentially become a miniature bank for the artisans who are ready to graduate our jewelry program and start their own businesses.

Each loan will have a 4% interest rate on the principle. So if a woman takes out a loan of $50, they will pay back $52.

Evaluation

We will evaluate whether or not the businesses work for the women. Our goal is that within one year of each women launching their own business, they will be self-sufficient and able to completely provide for themselves and their children. We will measure this progress every month when the come to report to the staff and other women and pay back a portion of their loan. Key indicators include: whether or not they have the money to pay back the loan, their self-reported success and progress, etc.

Sustainability Plan

Our goal is that by thoroughly preparing each woman to start and run their own business, we will not have failed businesses where the women aren’t able to make a living. Therefore, each woman that goes through the program will be able to pay back their loan with additional interest, which will allow the fund to not only remain at $4000, but to slowly grow, enabling us to fund more business loans in the future.

Revised Grant Application

Organizational Information

Name of Organization: Musana

Mission Statement: Our mission is to empower Ugandan women through a vibrant social enterprise that provides stable employment and educational opportunities, thereby building the capacity of artisans to end their cycle of poverty and become advocates of change in their communities

Tax ID number: XXX

Address: XXXX University Ave., Provo,

UT 84604

Phone Number: (xxx)xxx-xxxx

Website Address: http://musanaintl.com

Executive Summary

Musana is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission to empower Ugandan women through a vibrant social enterprise that provides stable employment and educational opportunities, thereby building the capacity of artisans to end their cycle of poverty and become advocates of change in their communities. We currently employ 21 women who make jewelry that we sell in the United States. Now we are seeking $4000 to start a business loan pool. The business loan pool will act as a banking system for women in our organization who are interested in starting their own business.

We at Musana are determined to create a loan fund for these blossoming women entrepreneurs. Current loan interest rates in Uganda are over 30%, so we desire to create a loan program where we can provide start-up funding at a manageable interest rate of 10%. This loan program will empower these women who have worked so hard for their economic stability by providing the needed financial backing to start their own business.

Ultimately, we want all 21 artisans at Musana to start their own sustainable business to continue the cycle of empowerment. When one woman is employed, her whole community is blessed and her children can and will go to school. This is our goal and our mission, to help these women become successful, end the cycle of poverty, and become advocates for change.

Background (Organization and Need)

There are 7.4 million rural poor in Uganda out of the 37.6 million people who live in the country. 20% of Ugandan citizens are considered poor by world standards, not by United States standards. In the United States, a typical person lives on around $30 a day. Now, compare that to the life of these 7.4 million rural poor in Uganda. They live on less than $1 a day. Less than $1 is all they have to support themselves and their families.

Lugazi has roughly the same percentage of rural poor in their city. Out of approximately 114,000 individuals, approximately 28,800 individuals are classified as rural poor.

7 years ago, we set out to make a difference in a few of these individuals’ lives.

We saw organization after organization go into Lugazi to help the rural poor and we saw organization after organization fail to make a lasting impact. These organizations primarily relied on handouts. They would give out money, or food, or other material items, and this was a great temporary solution, but it was not sustainable. As soon as each organization tried to move on to helping other individuals, the ones they left fell right back into the rural poor. Why? Because none of these organizations taught their beneficiaries how to provide for themselves or how to make their own lives better.

Musana did not want to make the same mistake. We wanted to make a lasting, sustainable impact on the lives of the rural poor in Lugazi. With this in mind, we made two conscious decisions:

First, we were going to start small. First we would focus on just a handful of people, a handful of women. We chose women because when you invest in a woman, you invest in a community. The World Bank found that investing in a women strengthens a country’s ability to reduce poverty, grow economically, and govern effectively. A woman reinvests an average of 90% of her income into her family, while a man only reinvests 30-40%.

Secondly, we decided that we would teach our women a skill, provide them with a job, and encourage them to pursue their own business dreams after they became financially independent and secure.

With these two decisions, we founded Musana.

As we began, we taught 21 women how to design and handcraft high-quality jewelry to sell in Uganda and the United States. We provide each woman with a full-time job, which provides economic stability and enhances their opportunity to gain marketable and transferrable skills. The full time artisans’ 67 school-aged children are now all in school out of 108 total children. Additionally, our artisans are able to support the basic needs of their families with education, healthcare, food, and housing. Over half of our artisans can now read and they all have savings accounts. They are much healthier, more confident, and report a higher level of happiness than before their employment.

Project Description

Since 2009, Musana has envisioned aiding women in Uganda to lift themselves out of poverty. We have taught 21 women how to make jewelry and run a business, save, take care of themselves and their family, and afford the necessities of life. Now it is time to continue the cycle by helping these women start their own businesses independent of Musana, which will allow us to bring more women into our program.

For this purpose, we have designed a new project, the Artisan Loan Pool. The Artisan Loan Pool will begin with $4000 in a lockbox and 10 of our 21 women who are already designing their own businesses. The loan pool will serve as a miniature, private bank for these 10 women.

Once a woman has gone through the process of designing their business, they will come before the other women in the group as well as the leadership of Musana. Together we will discuss their idea and decide whether or not they are ready to pursue their business and are ready to take a loan from the loan pool. Upon approval, the woman will take out a loan of $50-$500 to start their own business. They will then use this money for their startup costs. As they get their business going, they will begin to pay back the loan pool with a small amount of interest. Then, within one year, they will completely pay off their loan, which will enable more women to begin their own businesses.

Our goal is for each woman in our program to start their own business to provide for their families, which will open up spaces in our Jewelry program for new women.

Project Goals

Access to finance is one of the toughest components of starting a business in Uganda. We would like to provide access to finance for graduates of our Musana program at a 10% interest rate (microcredit average in Uganda is currently 37% interest). We request $4,000 to help start the fund. We will add $1,000 from our program funds to create $5,000 from which our artisans may draw business loans. This money will increase as loans are repaid. Musana will also match artisan savings of up to $100/year. An example process for receiving a loan would be as follows:

The women have a monthly meeting to discuss the loans. At that meeting women can present their business plan and case for needing start up capital.

All the women vote for or against the loan. They must all agree.

Up to nine loans can be taken out at one time. When one loan is paid back at 10% interestin the time frame agreed upon by the group, the next woman in line that would like to pitchher idea may do so.

This model includes the social pressure aspect of microloans, but is managed by the groupwith direction from our Musana management team, so the overhead is significantly less.

We expect the average loan to be around $50-$500.

Collaboration

To complete the Business Loan pool we have done the following collaborations:We have partnered with the Brigham Young University Marriott School of Management, who is sending 2 entrepreneurs to help the women develop their business plans. Each round of the Business Loan Pool, these entrepreneurs will come and help the 1-3 women develop their business plan.

We have also partnered with a company that is providing our organization with a lockbox to keep the money in a safe location.

Project Timeline

We have already been working on the Business Loan Pool project with the artisans at Musana. Up to this point in time we have discussed the idea of having a business loan pool with all of the women. Together, with the women, we have decided the following things:

We will begin the loan pool by selecting 1-3 of the women who are most ready to start their businesses.

Each woman who takes out a loan is accountable not only to the leadership of Musana, but to each of the other artisans.

Each woman’s business idea is required to be approved of by Musana’s leadership as well as the other artisans.

Each woman in Musana is invested in the other’s success because it will determine whether or not the loan pool will be able to continue. Therefore, each woman is interested in helping the other women succeed.

The Business Loan Pool money will be stored in a lock box where no individual woman has full access. They must meet as a group to access the lock box, so they will all be held accountable by one another. For instance, Musana’s US leadership will know the full code to open the lockbox, but the in country women will each only know a portion of the code, so they will have to come together and open the lock box as a group.

Month 1

• Meet with all Musana’s artisans and discuss officially starting the Business Loan Pool

• Decide as a group which 1-3 women will start their businesses first

Month 2

• Bring in business professionals to discuss business ideas with each woman and design detailed business plans for each woman

Month 3

• Have the Business Loan Pool fund on site in Uganda

Month 4

Work with the first 1-3 women to solidify their business plans

Create budgets for each woman

Create a timeline for each woman to pay back their loan

Compile a list of resources they will need to start their own business anddetermine how the cost of each resource

Decide how large of a loan each woman will take out, depending on howmuch money they need to start their business

Month 5

• Each woman takes out their loan
• Work with each woman to purchase the start-up materials for their

business

Month 6

Each woman begins their business venture

Our first round of artisans will continue to work part-time at Musana to supplement their efforts in their startup, but as their own businessbecomes more successful, they will fade to full-time on their own business

Month 7

• Each woman reports to the other women and the organizations leadership about the progress of their business venture

Month 8

Month 9

• Each woman reports progress • Pay first portion of loan back

Month 10

Month 11

• Report progress
• Pay second loan increment back

Month 12

Month 13

• Report progress
• Pay third loan increment back

Month 14

Month 15

• Report progress
• Pay fourth loan increment back

Month 16

Month 17

• Report progress
• Pay fifth loan increment back

Month 18

Give a final report to the organization. In this report they will discuss what has gone well and what still needs to be worked on. They will discuss their successes and their struggles. We want the other women to learn from their success and mistakes so that they can be more prepared to launch their own business.

Pay final increment of business loan back to the Business Loan Pool

After the 18 month cycle, we will begin again with the next set of women who are ready to start their own business.

Additionally, after we have gone through the program with each woman, they are not completely separated from the organization. Every 4-6 months they will come back and report how they are doing. Also at these meetings, each woman will take a survey that will have the following key indicators: number of children in school, number of meals eaten per day, literacy level, monthly income, savings, access to healthcare, etc.

Budget

Item

Quantity

Cost/unit

Total Cost

Women’s Business Loan Pool

—

—

$4000

Money Added by Musana

$1000

Lockbox

1

Donated

$0

Total

$5000

The $5000 will go into the Business Loan Pool, which will essentially become a miniature bank for the artisans who are ready to graduate our jewelry program and start their own businesses.

Additionally,

Each loan will have a 10% interest rate on the principle. So if a woman takes out a loan of $50, they will pay back $55.

Evaluation

In this project, we have three main parts that we will evaluate: each woman business idea, the business launch success, and the continued success of each woman and her business.

Business Idea

In order to determine the success of the business ideas for each woman, we have partneredwith the Brigham Young University Marriott School of Management. The Marriott School has agreed to send 2 successful entrepreneurs over to Uganda each round of this project to help develop and evaluate each woman’s business idea.

The entrepreneurs will coach each woman through their business ideas. As each business idea is evaluated, we will look for the following indicators:

Feasibility: Is the business idea something that can actually work?

Cost-effectiveness: Will the business make money? Will the woman be able to take out aloan of no more than $500 in order to start their business?

Community Importance: Based on the women’s research, is their business something thatthe community needs or could benefit from? Will they actually have customers when they start their business?

We will evaluate each business idea after the extensive planning that each woman will go through in the months leading up to their business launch.

Business Launch Success

The second round of evaluation that this program will have is the successfulness of their

business launch. The successfulness of their launch will be determined by their ability to provide for themselves and their families after 1 year of working on their business. Additionally, success will be determined by their ability to pay back the loan that they

received. We will have reporting sessions every month during the launch to help the women succeed, and this will also provide us with time to correct their idea if something doesn’t seem to be working.

Continued Success

The final evaluation is something that we have done for the past couple of years, and we will

continue to evaluate the women even after they complete their business launch. Musana hosted a PEAT intern who launched a full monitoring and evaluation system of our artisan program. She developed a tool that is currently being used to track the progress of each artisan on important key indicators that measure personal and family progress. When an artisan enters the Musana program, they are assessed through this survey, and then are reassessed every 6 months thereafter. Tracked progress on the indicators provides measurable evidence of impact. Key indicators to track individual artisan progress after their business launch include the number of children in school, the number of meals eaten per day, literacy level, monthly income, savings, access to healthcare, etc.

Sustainability Plan

Our goal at Musana is to ensure that the women we employ become self-reliant. We do not want to merely provide a job and then send them back to poverty. Additionally, we do not want to only help the women we are currently serving. Therefore, through the business loan fund we enable these women to create their own business, which will support themselves and their families into the future. Therefore, the long-term effect of the business loan fund is to create lasting financial success, which enables these women to be a continued light in their community. They will be able to support their children’s schooling and health using the principles we have taught them during their time with Musana. They will also be able to use their business skills that they have learned during our program to ensure success with their own business.

Our goal is that by thoroughly preparing each woman to start and run their own business, we will not have failed businesses where the women are not able to make a living. Therefore, each woman that goes through the program will be able to pay back their loan with additional interest, which will allow the fund to not only remain at $4000, but to slowly grow, enabling us to fund more business loans in the future.

Share this:

Planning and preparing for a fundraising event is a challenge. There are so many things to think about and so much to do. Let’s say that we have two organizations that have worked equally hard to plan a pancake breakfast for a school fundraiser. They have both put in the same amount of time, have

Share this:

If you haven’t read the first part of this series, hop on over to that article HERE. Otherwise, welcome to part 2 of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. In this article I am going to dive into Malcolm Gladwell’s Stickiness Factor and how it applies to your organization. The Stickiness Factor “The specific quality

Share this:

This week we have a great article coming to you from Kelsey Bradley. Kelsey currently sits as the executive director of a nonprofit organization as well as owns her own consulting business for nonprofit organizations. Check out her website HERE. How to Create a Fundraising Strategy for New and Small Nonprofit Organizations Planning and strategizing

Share this:

How to Get Your Nonprofit Grant Ready Sometimes nonprofits jump into the grant writing process before they are ready. In fact, you might be saying to yourself, “Do we actually need to prepare ourselves for grant writing?” YES! If you want to write grants that get funded, then you need to first prepare your grant

Share this:

7 Qualities of a Successful Nonprofit Leader and How to Become One Yourself A few weeks ago my husband showed me a great speech on leadership. The author, Spencer W. Kimball, used the Bible to discuss time-tested leadership qualities. Today, I want to share with you these timeless leadership qualities because they are qualities that

Share this:

Today I’m excited to share with you an article written specifically for The Nonprofit Collective from Clay Harmon at Aplos. If you haven’t checked out Aplos, here is a link! Fund Accounting – What is it? All nonprofits use it. Fund accounting is an accounting method nonprofit organizations use that focuses on accountability instead of profitability.

Share this:

Your Organization Needs to Read Good To Great and The Social Sectors… and Here’s Why + Free Workbook When you set out to start a nonprofit organization, did you think, “I just want to be average.” “I just want to sort of make a difference.” Probably not. When you started your organization, you probably wanted

Share this:

This week I’m excited to have Sean Kirby, a grant writer, here on the blog to talk to you about developing dynamic thank yous. Sean Kirby (@seanmkirby) is a grant writer and blogger who lives in Buffalo, New York. He focuses on helping nonprofits and municipalities gain funding through dedicated research and compelling copy. When he’s

Share this:

Take a minute to think about the relationship you have with your best friend (whether it be your spouse, a family member, or someone else). You probably know what jokes make them laugh. You know what kind of clothes they like, and whether they would pick Mexican food or Italian. You also probably know if

Share this:

Face-to-face solicitations are the most effective form of fundraising. In fact, when solicitors meet with people they know, the response rate is above 50%. That is quite high compared to other solicitation response rates such as direct mail or telephone. So. Today I want to talk about the best practices of face-to-face solicitations. I also

Share this:

“The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or

Share this:

Donor Retention Did you know that a typical charity will lose 50 percent of its cash donors between the first and second donation? Donor cultivation is too important, to expensive, and too time consuming to lose 50% of first time donors every year. In this article we will discuss the current findings of donor retention

Share this:

How to Turn a Working Board Into a Fundraising Board First off, let’s define a working board and a fundraising board: A working board is common in small nonprofit organizations. The board is heavily involved in running the organization day-to-day.Working boards are not heavily involved in fundraising for the nonprofit organization. A fundraising board

Share this:

Do you have kids? Have you ever heard a kid tell his mom or dad in the grocery store, “I NEED this” referring to some worthless toy or candy bar? Did you laugh to yourself thinking, they don’t actually need that. We all need things such as food, shelter, and a place to sleep, but

Share this:

This is Part 2 of How to Stand Out on Instagram! Click HERE to read part one OR click HERE to download the whole FREE eBook in the shop called How to Make a Killer Instagram for Nonprofit Organizations. Lesson 6 Posting With a Purpose Each picture and post on Instagram should have a purpose. Are

Share this:

In my shop you can download for FREE an eBook that I wrote about how to stand out on Instagram as a nonprofit organization. I also wanted to give you the first half of the eBook right here! (Next week I’ll post the second half.) Lesson 1 5 “Greats” of Instagram Do you ever browse the

Share this:

Are you looking for new fundraising ideas for your nonprofit organization? Perhaps you do the same events every year and you are looking for something a little different. Maybe you are just getting started and want to find some great ideas to use for your staple events. Here is a list of 50 fundraising ideas,

Share this:

It’s here! The Grant Writing Master Class is up and running! Thanks so much to everyone who has purchased their copy of the course! The course will continue to sell in the shop, so don’t worry if you weren’t able to purchase it during the pre-sale. As a conclusion to this launch, I want to

Share this:

It’s here! The Grant Writing Master Course is now on sale! Be sure to purchase your copy of the course before the price doubles on January 9th! Click on the photo below to find out more about the course and purchase your copy today!